


Mirror Mirror

by Lancelot_of_the_revolution



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek, M/M, Sharing a Bed, fake married, it's mirror mirror but with boostle, just try and stop me, mostly just to fix an error with their uniform colors, slightly edited the first chapter when i posted chapter two, specifically the mirrorverse, yeah I'm doing that too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2020-05-16 02:29:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19308799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lancelot_of_the_revolution/pseuds/Lancelot_of_the_revolution
Summary: Everything was Wrong. The transporter room was darker than it should be. There was a logo on the far wall that could only be described as "threatening"-- the planet earth with a dagger stabbed through it. The transporter attendant was a stranger to Ted, made even more clear by their unusual dress; clothes that brought to mind a starfleet uniform, but with unrecognizable medals and accents. What's worse was that Ted and Booster both seemed to be wearing the same sort of uniform, both dressed in the foreign but familiar crimson of their respective career paths. He didn't know how or why, but he knew that they were not on their Enterprise.(star trek au that sort of follows the plot of mirror, mirror)





	1. Chapter 1

Booster had been throwing up for a solid five minutes. 

 

That didn't even crack the top ten for reasons Ted wanted to be anywhere else from where he was right now. 

 

Everything was Wrong. The transporter room was darker than it should be. There was a logo on the far wall that could only be described as "threatening"-- the planet earth with a dagger stabbed through it. The transporter attendant was a stranger to Ted, made even more clear by their unusual dress; clothes that brought to mind a starfleet uniform, but with unrecognizable medals and accents. What's worse was that Ted and Booster both seemed to be wearing the same sort of uniform, both dressed in the foreign but familiar crimson of their respective career paths. He didn't know how or why, but he knew that they were not on their Enterprise. 

 

Finally Booster rose to his feet, still shaky and a little green, and leaned on Ted for support. The transporter attendant, who had started out watching with vague concern but at this point looked mostly just pissed at the inconvenience of the display, took the opportunity to speak. 

 

“There was a bit of disturbance with the transporter,” they explained, which to both Ted and Booster seemed like the most painfully obvious thing in the universe. They were the ones that had flickered in and out of existence, after all. “Probably caused by the ion storm. I called the med bay to send someone to collect Michael. They should be here--”

 

The door slid open as if on cue. The nurse on the other side marched in and gave a crisp salute that Ted didn't recognize to the transporter attendant before turning toward Booster. 

 

“You better take me, too” Ted blurted without really meaning to. All he knew was that there was no way in hell he was letting Booster go anywhere on this strange ship without him. 

 

“Why would I-- sir, you seem perfectly fine?”

 

“I'm concussed,” Ted lied. 

 

“You're not concussed.”

 

“Sure I am,” Ted ran over a mental list of concussion symptoms and began swaying slightly on his feet. 

 

The nurse didn't seem convinced. Nevertheless, she shrugged and agreed to give Ted a check up as well. 

 

Ted kept hold on Booster's arm, walking a few paces behind the nurse. 

 

"Ted--" Booster started to whisper, but Ted cut him off. 

 

"Wait till we get to the med bay," he insisted. They were going to have to figure out what the fuck was going on, but they couldn't very well do that with the nurse within earshot. 

 

The checkup itself didn't take much, just the nurse giving them each a once over with her tricorder and taking the opportunity to make fun of Booster's weak stomach and scold Ted for exaggerated a head injury that hadn't actually happened. 

 

"Because of the ion storm, I suppose we should get the two of you checked by the CMO," the nurse said, "So I'll call doctor G'nort up--" 

 

Booster did a piss poor job of disguising his laugh as a cough. 

 

"Doctor… who?" Ted asked, doing about as good a job of keeping a straight face as Booster was. 

 

"Doctor G'nort? Christ, maybe you are concussed. We've had the same chief medical officer for months, sir."

 

"Right, right, of course. Doctor G'nort. The chief medical officer. Highest ranking physician on the ship. G'nort. Yep."

 

The nurse raised a brow at them, but decided the best course of action was to continue on as though her patients hadn't lost their minds, "Anyway, I've got people I need to tend to, so I'm just going to go ahead and leave the two of you here. The doctor will be here shortly. Try not to have completely lost it by the time he arrives, yeah?"

 

"Yep," Booster nodded, "We'll just be here. waiting."

 

"Waiting for Doctor G'nort."

 

The nurse glanced between the two of them a couple times before departing with a shake of her head and some rather rude mumbling. 

 

As soon as she was out the door, Booster turned toward Ted, "Hey, any idea what the fuck is happening right now?" 

 

"I was kind of hoping you knew," Ted shrugged, "I know this isn't our ship. Everyone here thinks we belong, though."

 

"It looks like the Enterprise," Booster frowned, "Everything is laid out the same."

 

"'Cept for the lights," Ted noted. The entire ship had been as dark as the transporter room. 

 

"And the medical staff is mean here," Booster frowned, "That nurse made fun of me for throwing up."

 

"The medical staff on our enterprise does that, you just don't hear it."

 

"It's not my fault transporters make me nauseous! And with that malfunction and the ion storm--" 

 

Something clicked inside Ted's head, "the ion storm!" 

 

"Yeah, the transporter attendant said something about an ion storm while we were beaming up. So did the nurse."

 

"Computer," Ted turned to the wall, "Run calculations: given the strength of the ion storm outside, and the mechanics of a standard starfleet transporter, is it possible that beaming during an ion storm of this magnitude could result in interaction with an alternate universe? Maybe even transportation into said alternate universe?" 

 

The robotic voice answered back, "Affirmative. One way transportation to an alternate universe is possible given these conditions."

 

"Followup calculation," Ted said, holding up a finger to keep Booster from talking, "Is it possible to replicate the conditions of the ion storm using this ships power, allowing transportation at will to an alternate universe?" 

 

After a brief moment of calculations, the computer once again answered, "Affirmative. However, this course of action is ill advised. "

 

"You think we're in an alternate universe?" Booster asked. 

 

"Give me another explanation for G'nort being the chief medical officer and I'll take it," Ted shrugged, "At least we know we can get home."

 

"Assuming you can Jerry rig the Enterprise to get us there, anyway," booster pointed out, "You sure you can do that?" 

 

"oh, ye of little faith! Of course I can."

 

"Terrific," Booster said, hopping off his cot and starting toward the door. 

 

"Where are you going?" 

 

"to my station. Suppose we better try to fit in here until we can get back, right? And I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no intention of meeting Dr. G'nort."

 

Ted snorted, "you make an excellent point," he said. 

 

 Booster led Ted down the hall. On their Enterprise, Booster was assigned to go on break after they'd returned from their mission. Hopefully that was true here as well, because they were both headed toward the engineering deck. Booster worked security, but he had a habit of spending breaks in engineering with Ted. 

 

He didn't even think about it what he'd do if that wasn't his usual behavior on this Enterprise. Of course he'd hang out with Ted every chance he got, no matter the universe. He couldn't imagine a reality in which he and Ted weren't best friends. 

 

Ted made a tiny choked squeaking noise in the back of his throat, and Booster made the grave mistake of turning around to see what he was looking at.

 

There stood the ships second in command (and, if anyone was being honest, real leader) J'onn J'onzz. He looked nearly the same in this universe-- tall, green, serious as the plague and giving the vague impression of being just as deadly.

 

With one tiny difference.

 

With one huge difference.

 

J'onn J'onzz had a goatee.

 

Booster risked a quick glance at Ted, who seemed to be about two inches away from breaking into giggle fits. He'd fixed his gaze just above J'onn's head so as not to witness the offending facial hair directly. He was biting his own lips shut to keep from laughing out loud, but his shoulders were shaking ever so slightly either from the laughter or the effort of holding it in.

 

"What exactly is going on here, Michael?"

 

Booster reeled a little at the sound of Not-J'onn saying his first name, but he caught up quickly.

 

"We've just returned from being planetside, sir,"

 

"I'm aware. I was under the impression the two of you were in the med bay following your less than ideal transportation?"

 

"We were, sir, but we were released. Sir."

 

"I see. And you are aware that all personnel are required to report to the bridge upon returning to the ship, or upon being released from med bay if applicable?"

 

"Yes sir, we are on our way to the bridge right now."

 

"You were walking away from the bridge when I saw you."

 

Booster bit back the urge to curse, "we got... Lost. Sir."

 

By some miracle, Goatee-J'onn seemed to be just as exhausted by Booster and Ted as Regular-J'onn . He took the answer with a sigh and a pinch to the bridge of the nose, muttering something about fools and poor life choices.

 

"You'll be expected on the bridge in ten minutes," he insisted before turning away.

 

As soon as he was out of earshot, Ted doubled over.

 

"It's not that funny," booster said, barely holding back his own laughter. 

 

"IT IS ABSOLUTELY THAT FUNNY!"

 

At that booster doubled over laughing as well, clinging onto Ted's shoulder for support. After a few minutes, once they could both breath, they stood up straight and wiped the tears from their eyes.

 

"D'ya think-- d'you think other me has a goatee?" Booster asked, sending Ted back into the same laughing fit as before. 

 

"Come on! I w-wouldn't," Booster insisted through his own laughter, "I wouldn't l-look that bad with a g-goatee!" 

 

"Y'know who you'd look like?" Ted coughed, "d'you remember Oliver Queen, from Starfleet Academy?" 

 

"No! Absolutely not! Don't even finish that thought!" 

 

"You with your bright ass blond hair, you'd be twins! Er, triplets." 

 

"I'm way hotter than Oliver, first of all!" 

 

Once they had both caught their breath again, Booster said, "So are we actually going to report to the bridge?" 

 

"I don't think Not-J'onn gave us much of a choice."


	2. Chapter 2

The bridge looked mostly the same, with a few exceptions. Tora wasn't at her usual station as communications officer, so Ted assumed she must be on break in this universe. It was just as dark here as it was on the rest of the ship, but their eyes had long since adjusted. Otherwise, it was almost identical to their bridge. 

  
  


"Hello, lieutenant, lieutenant commander," Maxwell Lord called from the captain's chair as soon as they entered the room, "I trust your trip planet side proved worthwhile?" 

 

"Yes, sir," Ted said. 

 

"And that you've secured the parts that you needed to repair the warp core?" 

 

"Yes, sir." 

 

"With minimal casualties?" 

 

Ted paused at that question. The mission he'd been on had been a simple trade, show up on a planet and acquire dilithium crystals and a few extra parts that he needed before taking off again. Booster had been there as added security, but mostly just as a formality. Why the hell would there have been casualties? 

 

"... Yes, sir," he held up the bag that was strapped over his shoulder. 

 

"Very good. Well then, back to your stations."

 

Booster frowned, "Aren't I supposed to be on break?" 

 

Ted went back to engineering alone after finding out that Wrong Booster had taken his break before beaming down. Ted repaired the broken parts, hoping that starships still worked the same in whatever dimension they were currently in. Everything seemed to work mostly the same here, outside of people's general demeanors. The most striking difference was that nearly all the ensigns on the engineering deck seemed to be deathly afraid of Ted, jumping a little in their shoes every time he addressed them. Even being chief engineer he'd never gotten a whole lot of respect back in his reality-- sure, everyone knew logically that he had some form of power over them, but his personality was always such that crew members on the enterprise were incapable of taking him completely seriously as an authority figure. The other engineers weren't mean about it, per se, they just didn't treat him the way they'd treat other officers of similar rank. It had always bothered Ted a little, but if this-- having everyone on your staff absolutely petrified when you look in their direction-- was the alternative then Ted definitely preferred the way things worked back home. 

  
  


After his shift, Ted returned to his room. Or at least, he'd thought he returned to his room. The door was refusing to open for him. 

 

He'd been trying to pry open the door with his own two hands for a good amount of time when Bea rounded the corner. 

 

"Ted. What the fuck are you doing?" 

 

"Door won't open."

 

"It's locked."

 

"I noticed! Why's it locked?!" 

 

"Because I wasn't home?" 

 

Ted paused and turned to face Bea, "This is... Your room?" 

 

"Has been for more than a month, ever since you moved out. Should I be concerned about you trying to break in to my quarters?" 

 

Ted felt his face heating up. Well, this was awkward. 

 

"Not at all. I must just be out of it, after that transporter malfunction. You know how it is."

 

Bea didn't look convinced, "So you're leaving now, yes?" 

 

"Of course! I wouldn't want to bother you. I'll just be getting back to my quarters…"

 

"Good."

 

"My quarters… Which are…"

 

"Eight doors down, Ted."

 

"Right, I knew that."

 

Eight doors down… Eight doors down…. Wait a minute, isn't that… 

 

"Booster's room." he whispered, staring down the door. Why the hell had he moved into Booster's room a month ago?! 

 

He walked in to find Booster sitting sprawled out on his couch, having finished his shift at the same time Ted had without having to deal with the delay of not knowing where he lived. 

 

"Hey Ted, check it out! Other Me has a king sized bed!" 

 

Ted frowned, "Half of that bed is mine."

 

Booster frowned, "I’m sorry?!" 

 

"Half of that bed. Is mine. I live here too, apparently. Bea has my old room-- hell of a conversation we had about it, by the way, she probably thinks I'm insane now. But yes, I moved in last month." on the plus side, it was Bea who had his old room. Ted at least had a passing knowledge of how to deal with her. He couldn't imagine if it had been a total stranger who's room he'd accidentally tried to break into. 

 

Thankfully, Booster did not dwell on the fact that they shared living quarters in this universe. Or at least, he didn't comment on it aloud. After a moment of thought, he said, "That's good news, it means we'll have more time together to try to figure out what the hell is going on." 

 

"Right." 

 

Ted thought about pointing out the implications of their double room. He thought about trying to sit down with a padd and running the numbers on how to get home. Then he took another look at Booster lazily spread out on the couch (their couch? Not Their couch) and made his decision: don't worry about what comes next, don't worry about tomorrow or the day after or the day after that. Sure, the situation is life or death, but it's 2300 and Ted is exhausted and his best friend is sitting right there and maybe just this once life or death situations could wait until morning. 

 

"Scoot over, Boost," he said, not waiting for Booster to respond before pushing his legs off the couch and taking the seat for himself, "You would not believe the day I've had in engineering." 

 

"Oh, just wait until you hear about what the security crew is like here--" 

 

Apparently, they were just about the antithesis of the engineering crew. Where the ensigns in engineering were scared and cautious, Booster's coworkers seemed to all hold a vocal and vehement hatred of damn dear everyone on the crew, as well as full intention to act on this hatred in many cases.

 

"And it's the weirdest thing," he said, after finishing off his story of Beatriz Da Costa nearly breaking a young man's wrist over an argument, "Everyone here calls me Michael."

 

That night Ted was lying on his back, staring up at the approximate place a ceiling ought to be, but it was impossible to see in the dark. He knew exactly where Booster was on the bed by the heat radiating off of him, the sound of his breathing, the weight pushing into the mattress. "Hey, Boost?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"We share a single bedroom in this universe."

 

"Yes"

 

"Which, in our starfleet, is only reserved for married couples."

 

"Correct."

 

"Are we gonna talk about that or..."

 

"Nope."

 

Probably for the best, Ted decided. 


	3. Chapter 3

Ted woke up before Booster. Really, he hadn’t done a whole hell of a lot of sleeping in the first place. He’d spent most of the night awake and worrying. Eventually, around 0500, Ted gave up on sleeping and took to roaming their quarters with a cup of sub-par replicated coffee. 

 

He had a few hours before his shift, and despite everything the morning had a peaceful air. The ship seemed quiet from in their quarters. No matter where he stood in the room, Ted could hear Booster’s soft snoring. It wasn’t annoying, though, far from it. It was nice, almost, a sort of pleasant reminder that no matter how weird everything was, his best friend was still right there. It added to the comfort of the morning.

 

Booster woke up just as Ted was getting ready for his shift.

 

“You’re up early.” Booster noted, spooking the shit out of Ted, who hadn’t noticed he’d woken up.

 

“I’ve been out of bed for a while,” he said, “I wonder where other me keeps his uniforms…” Ted opened the top drawer on one of the dressers, then immediately slammed it back shut.

 

"Don't look in there"

 

Booster raised a brow, opening his mouth to ask for an explanation.

 

Ted cut him off before he could say anything, offering, "They're newlyweds" as his only explanation.

 

Booster stared at him, confused, for a moment, until realization dawned. Realization was quickly replaced with laughter.

 

"No, no! I wanna look," he said through his giggling, "I wonder-- I wonder what other me is into!"

 

"We are not having this conversation" Ted shook his head, smiling a little despite himself.

 

“ _ Fuck  _ that’s hilarious!”

 

“It would be, if it wasn’t us!”

 

“‘S not us,” booster shrugged, “That’s the thing, isn’t it? We don’t work for some weird edgy Starfleet, you don’t rule the engineering deck with an iron fist and I don’t act like any of the assholes in security here... And we’re definitely not married. Those other guys might look like us and sound like us and have our names but they aren’t really us.”

 

Ted thought about that for a moment, “But we’re going to have to be them, aren’t we? I still don’t trust this place. We need to avoid making anyone suspicious, and that means acting like our counterparts.”

 

“I guess so. So we have to act all rude and edgy?”

 

“It couldn’t hurt.”

 

“And married?”

 

“We probably should.” there was a beat of quiet, only the sound of drawers opening and closing as Ted continued to look for his uniforms. He had no way of guessing Booster’s reaction to his suggestion. “Unless-- well, we don’t have to, obviously, we could say we had a fight on the planet’s surface, or something, make excuses so we don’t have to, y’know, act like newlyweds or anything. And besides, the ship is mostly a professional environment, anyway, so--”

 

“Ted it’s fine. We don’t have to spread rumors about ourselves, that would just put more focus on us. We can pretend to be married, right? I mean, we already spend all our time together anyway, half of the crew back home already thinks we’re dating, I bet.”

 

Right. Right. It’s just an undercover mission, really. And he and Booster had already fooled and pranked alternate versions of most of these people, so it wasn’t like tricking them here promised to be overly difficult. Just pretend to be madly in love with Booster. Those are the parameters of the mission. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

 

“Actually, Guy said something about you being my husband yesterday, but I figured he was just, y'know, being Guy."

 

"You met Guy?" Ted asked, "what's Wrong Guy like?"

 

"Pretty much the same."

 

"You're kidding!"

 

"I am," booster said, "I really can't tell you what he's like, actually. He didn't say much."

 

"Ah," Ted gave a little snort of a laugh, "So nothing like our Guy!" he turned around to face Booster, which, as it turned out, was a terrific mistake.

 

He'd caught Booster sitting up in bed and stretching. The blankets were pooled around his waist, leaving his upper body entirely on display. His hair was stuck up in odd places from sleep, his face was screwed up in the world's most exaggerated yawn, and somehow the sight of him left Ted only thinking of one word.

 

_ Beautiful. _

 

Actually there were a few other words. And now that Booster was done yawning and had taken to shooting Ted a goofy, still-half-asleep grin, quite a few actions had shown up in Ted's mind as well. He made the firm decision to focus on exactly none of them.

 

Pretend to be in love with booster. Ignore any indications that it might not be pretending. Stay focussed on the task at hand.

 

“I, uh, I have to report to engineering pretty soon, but you’re free all day, right?”

 

“As a bird, yeah.”

 

“Why don’t you research our… alter egos while I’m on the clock, maybe some get information about this alternate starfleet, and you can debrief me tonight?”

 

“You got it. Anything I can do that’ll help get us out of here.”

  
  
  


Ted and Michael Kord-Carter hadn’t had the same good sense to try and blend in as their counterparts. Within minutes of beaming onboard, the two of them had been detained, stuck in the brig with security on duty to monitor them. 

 

Not-Ted was struggling against a pair of security officers who were forcing the two of them into a cell, “What the hell is happening?! Where are we?! Where is J’onn’s beard?!”

 

Guy Gardner laughed as he slammed the lock on their cell, “J’onn’s fucking  _ what?!” _

 

“Why are you all dressed like that?!” Michael was leaning as close as he could to the forcefield that held their cell shut, “and why is it so bright in here?! Good god can someone turn down the lights, it’s only been five minutes and my head is killing me!”

 

Bea said, “Maybe that’s because guy slammed it against a wall a minute ago,” at the same time J’onn said, “Ensign, Please dim the lights for our guests.”

  
  
  


“Computer,” Booster was exhausted by this point. The Kord-Carters had some absolutly terrifying files, full of murder and cruelty. The files on all of their friends were just as bad and often worse. Booster was getting sick to his stomach just reading about it, the thought of spending any amount of time around these people, pretending to fit in with them…

 

 “Computer, give me a brief history of the Terran Empire.”


	4. Chapter 4

_Make conversation, say something, act natural._

 

Bea had sat down at Ted and Booster's table in the dining hall just as Booster was beginning to explain what he'd learned of the universe that they'd found themselves in. Now, not only was he stuck in the dark for the remainder of the meal, but he had to deal with talking to Not Bea without screwing up. 

 

_What does Not Bea like talking about? Her girlfriend, maybe? They're probably still together here? They've got to at least know each other?_

 

"So, I haven't seen Tora around today. How's she doing?"

 

Bea gaped at him. Out of the corner of his eye, Ted saw Booster wince.

 

Bea shook her head. "That's cruel, Ted. Even for you," she picked up her plate and stomped away from the table.

 

Ted turned back to booster, "What? What did I say?"

 

Booster grabbed Ted's hand and led him into the hall, which was blessedly empty.

 

"Ted," Booster said, as soon as they were certain no one was within earshot, "You remember how I told you people get promotions in this universe?"

 

Ted glanced back toward the mess hall, "Tora..."

 

"Was a high ranking communications officer. The kind of rank that people don't keep for very long around here."

 

Ted shook his head, not quite able to talk yet. He hadn't really known this girl. As far as he knew, his Tora was still in their universe perfectly safe and sound. Still...

 

"Anybody else I shouldn't mention?"

 

Booster leaned his shoulder and his head against the wall next to them, "No one we know too well, except..." he faltered.

 

Ted ran through a mental list of everyone he'd met. For the most part, everyone was accounted for. Everyone except Tora that is. And--

 

"Your sister. We haven't met your sister yet."

 

 Booster nodded. He wasn't really looking at Ted.

 

"You don't... You don't know she's gone, right? I mean, maybe Michelle just didn't follow you into starfleet in this universe. Or she didn't get assigned to the Enterprise-- I mean, siblings getting stationed together is super rare, it was a fluke even in our universe--"

 

"I already checked, Ted. In this universe, Michelle Carter was assigned to the ISS Enterprise alongside side her twin brother and she died on an away mission two years ago."

 

"Boost, I'm s--"

 

"Wasn't my sister," he shrugged. The look in his eye said he hadn't truly gotten himself to believe that yet, "My sister's at home. Probably having a hell of a time dealing with an evil, grieving version of me." He let out a sound that could have been a laugh, or a sigh, "Fuck, Ted. Other Me sounds like an asshole but being in our universe with our Michelle must hell for him."

 

"Buddy, are you okay?"

 

Booster shook his head, lifting himself away from the wall, "I don't know what I'm feeling right now. Nothing good. I'm going to go back to the room."

 

Ted watched him walk down the hall, briefly debating following him, trying to comfort him, and then deciding it best to let him be alone for a little while. So Ted went to his newly empty table to finish his meal before he returned to the room. 

  
  


"Mikey, you better get a look at this--" 

 

"I can't imagine it's anything that interesting."

 

"Mikey? I don't think I've ever heard Ted call you that."

 

"Michelle--" Michael was at the front of the cell almost immediately, as close to Michelle as he could get. 

 

"That's me-- I just had to see my evil twin! Damn, this is _weird._ Are you wearing eyeliner?" 

 

"Michelle… you're Michelle…"

 

Michelle stepped back. She didn't like the way Michael was looking at her, like she was an anomaly, a supernova, beautiful and bright and an absolutely once in a lifetime experience. "Should I not be?" 

 

Not Ted rested a hand on Michael's shoulder, "I think you should leave. This isn't… It's not good for you to see each other."

 

"No, Teddy, I want to see her." He was searching her face now, but Michelle had no hope of guessing what he was looking for. 

 

"It's not her, you know that." Not Ted, on the other hand, was looking just about everywhere except for at Michelle. 

 

"Looks like her. Sounds like her."

 

"Could someone please explain to me what's going on right now?!" 

 

Not Ted thought for a moment, trying to find the right words. "Michelle, the version of you from our universe is dead. She died years ago. So you can imagine this is sort of like seeing a ghost for us. Especially for Mikey"

 

"I'm dead?" 

 

"No, a girl who looks and sounds and maybe even acts like you is dead. You aren't her." Michelle got the feeling that Not Ted was trying to convince himself and Michael of that more than he was trying to convince her. 

 

Well. To say this was awkward would be one hell of an understatement. "Shit… I, uh, I'm sorry you two. I hadn't realized… I really just came by to pick on my brother's weird clone I wasn't expecting to traumatize you guys. I'm gonna… I'm gonna go ahead and leave y'all alone."

 

"No, wait--" Michael called, stopping her in her tracks, "please stay. Tell us about this place. This universe we're in right now."

 

"Mikey…"

 

"Ted, I'm fine. I just… I need to know about the world where my sister isn't dead."

 

So Michelle stayed. She sat outside the cell and first she learned that in some other world she'd died in a conflict with a group of vulcans during an away mission, which was a statement that brought to mind more questions than Michelle could count but the Kord-Carters didn't seem keen on describing their reality. Instead, they insisted that Michelle explain the federation to them, explain an earth that values knowledge as more than just a means to gain power and a starfleet that values diplomacy over conquest. 

  
  


Ted was lying on the bed, sprawled out so that he was taking up the entire thing by himself. Booster was pacing as he recounted his newfound knowledge in the privacy of their quarters. 

 

"So this place really fucking sucks doesn't it."

 

"Yeah. Yeah it does."

 

"I don't even want to pretend to be those guys, Boost. They're awful!" Even ignoring Not Ted and Not Booster's body count, ignoring their disciplinary records, ignoring anything that could be given the benefit of the doubt of an unfair recording or a story that needed to be told, there was the Terran Empire to deal with. Ted felt gross just wearing the uniform of such a violent force of colonization and war mongering. Suddenly, the unfamiliar salute he'd been seeing all over the ship had been contextualized with some high school history courses and Ted almost felt like throwing up. And now he had to pretend to be someone who volunteered to fight for that sort of regime? On purpose? 

 

"It's just until we can get home… which is going to be about when, by the way?" 

 

 _That's the kicker._ "I have no idea. I know it's possible, the computer told us so. But I don't know exactly how."

 

"Well you're just about the best engineer I've ever met, I'm sure you'll find a way."

 

Ted waited for the compliment to grow teeth, some friendly jab to take away from the tender sincerity of booster's words, but it never happened. Booster wasn't in the mood for joking. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tentative change to the expected chapter count because it may very well be more than that, I'm not sure yet


	5. Chapter 5

"So this issue is that I'm trying to ask a starship engine to break the laws of time and space."

 

"It's the enterprise, she's probably pretty used to it by now." Booster had a good enough point, impossibilities were a weekly occurrence on board this particular ship. Didn't make them any easier to achieve, though. 

 

There was a bit of silence before Booster spoke again, "I wonder, if we would have just beamed down again immediately after we landed, would we be back home safe and sound?" 

 

"Or would we be erased from reality all together?"

 

"Not my favorite outcome, I'll admit."

 

Ted had been running numbers and simulations in their quarters for hours in an attempt to get them home. Booster, as much as he wished to be a bigger help, was resigned primarily to leaning against Ted's desk and having Ted bounce ideas off of him. It was a bit fun to watch him work, honestly, despite the severity of the situation. Every once in a while he'd look up, suggest some solution or other, and then rattle off a bunch of techno babble words Booster didn't understand until he'd answered his own question and about five more questions that no one had actually asked. A conversation completely with himself while Booster nodded along like he had any clue what a Heisenburg compensator was. 

 

Booster knew that his best friend was probably the smartest person he'd ever met, but there was a difference between knowing that and watching proof of it happen in front of his eyes. There was something almost beautiful about watching the padd fill up with diagrams and equations, an elegance to the information being sorted through by someone who knew what they were doing. Not to mention the way Ted looked when he focused-- chewing on his lip or muttering to himself, the furrow in his brow and the intensity in his eyes. 

 

_ Good God booster there is no way math is this much of a turn on. Get it together.  _

 

It wasn't really the math, obviously. Booster found himself distracted nearly every time his mind had the chance to wander around Ted, any time it was too quiet for too long Booster started to pay extra attention to the way the red of Ted's hair showed up different in different lights, or the way his eyes lit up when he smiled, or--

 

_ Now is absolutely not the time.  _

 

This was probably the most dangerous situation the two of them had gotten into since they stepped on board the Enterprise, there'd be time for pining once they were home. 

 

Booster started absently fidgeting with the wedding ring he'd been beamed in with while he watched Ted work. Other him wasn't pining. Other him was married to his Ted. Booster wondered how that happened, if the two of them had started off an item right when they met, or if they were friends first and the other him had been able to work up the nerve to talk to Ted anyway, even with their friendship at risk.

 

(He doesn't know that it was Ted who first brought up his feelings first, and that they were in fact friends already for years before that conversation happened. It doesn't even occur to him that any Ted would have brought such a thing up in any universe, the idea of any version of Ted having some secret crush on any version of him was absolutely alien.)

 

But then… Booster had been the one to shut down Ted when he brought up them being married here. He'd been the one to oh so quickly point out how the versions of them in this universe didn't reflect who they were. What sort of signals did that send to Ted? In booster's mind, booster knew that he was running away from those questions because he wasn't ready to deal with them right now. To Ted, it probably sounded like Booster was shutting him down at any conversation about the two of them because the idea was upsetting to him… 

 

The wall whistled, breaking off Booster's train of thought. 

 

"Lieutenant Michael Kord-Carter to the transporter room, we have an away team beaming down that needs security."

 

For a moment, a familiar dull tiredness filled Booster's bones. Then he remembered that this wasn't going to be a boring research mission where he followed around some scientist for a little while and then beamed back up in time for lunch. It wasn't even going to be the usual enterprise away team, which a thirty percent chance of whatever planet they land on causing some outrageous disaster that can only be fixed by quick thinking and scientific miracles from at least eight different members of the staff. This was going to be an away team for the ISS Enterprise, and Booster had no idea what that meant. 

 

From the wide eyed look Ted was giving him, he'd just realized the same thing. "Boost--" 

 

"I'll be okay." he didn't know that. Ted knew he didn't know that. It wasn't like they could do anything now. What was that saying he'd heard vulcans using?  _ Kaiidth.  _ What is, is. This is the situation they were stuck with, now they just had to survive it. 

 

Surviving it was… Harder than he thought it would be. 

 

He'd beamed down with Bea and the scientists that they were supposed to be protecting only to be immediately faced with phaser shots from aliens they hadn't known were on the planet's surface. One scientist had been hit immediately, killed before they'd had the chance to respond. Ensign O' Neil. 

 

In Booster's universe, he'd just seen O' Neil safe and sound in the mess hall last week. 

 

He and Bea immediately grabbed the remaining two researchers and ducked behind the boulder they'd beamed down beside. 

 

"Fucking hell," ensign Rapp, a xenobotonist, muttered to herself, "Can I do some research in peace without getting shot at by some--" 

 

"Quiet," Bea hissed, "you can complain when we're not in danger of dying."

 

Booster could feel the phaser shots hitting the Boulder behind his back. They were beginning to slow. He held his phaser ready, "I think we're going to have company soon, Bea."

 

"Yeah," Bea glanced over her shoulder, toward the rock behind them but really indicating the aliens shooting at them, "They aren't going to be shooting at stone forever, they'll want to hit something that can bleed soon enough."

 

"I guess we should set our phasers to kill?"

 

"What else would they be set on, Michael?" 

 

Booster didn't get the chance to ponder the question before the shooting stopped completely and they found themselves face to face with four blue-gray humanoids with yellow eyes and strange uniforms.\\. Bea shot the alien closest to her as she and Booster put themselves between their crew and their attackers. Out of some instinct  _ not  _ to kill, Booster just shot the phaser out of one of their hands, making the injured alien jump back and shout some profanity Booster's translator couldn't find a Federation Standard match for. 

 

"Watch your aim, Carter!" Bea shouted as she killed a second alien without blinking. 

 

He had the time to huff, "Give me a break!" before the enemy he'd disarmed slugged him, knocking him right on his ass and making him drop his phaser in the process. 

 

And then the weirdest thing happened. 

 

Booster heard a transporter beam right behind him, but he stayed right where he was. Disarmed with an alien boot on his chest. 

 

"mother _ fucker"  _ Bea muttered, having heard the transporter too. Booster managed to get a hold of his phaser while the alien that had punched him was distracted by the transporter beam, and he shot the man square in the chest. 

 

One enemy left. 

 

And then the world went black. 

  
  
  


"Took you long enough, didn't it." 

 

Booster was lying on his back. The floor was cold, uncomfortably moist. Is there any such thing as comfortably moist? It was dark, but not too dark to see as his blurry vision came into focus. Bea was standing over him-- that must have been her talking. 

 

"Hglua?" 

 

"Eloquent."

 

Let's try that again. "What's going on?" 

 

"Not much better than your first shot at talking. We're in a prison cell. There was another soldier hiding somewhere we didn't see, I’d wager on top of the Boulder we were hiding behind, who knocked us out. Now we're prisoners."

 

"Where are Rapp and Stevens?" 

 

"Beamed back to the Enterprise. We may not retreat, but scientists have no place in battle. You know that, it's basic protocol."

 

"No! I didn't know that!" 

 

"What?" 

 

Booster thudded his head against the hard floor. What was the point of keeping a secret now? "Bea, I don't have any clue what's going on! I'm not… None of this is anything I've trained for."

 

"You're not making any sense."

 

"I know. Look, you remember the ion storm a couple days back? When Ted and I beamed up, we sort of… swapped places with the versions of us from an alternate universe. With the versions of us from this universe. I'm not actually your Michael." he paused, then laughed a bit to himself, "I'm barely anyone's Michael. Most people I know just call me Booster."

 

Bea stared at him for a little while, then said, "That's a really stupid nickname."

 

"Hey! There's no need to be rude!" 

 

"There's no need to make up bullshit stories, but here we are."

 

"I'm not making it up! Ted and I are really from a different dimension! A nicer dimension, where the Enterprise doesn't leave crew members to die as a political statement. I mean, seriously, you guys live like this?" 

 

Bea pursed her lips for a moment, considering once more. 

 

"Prove it. Prove you're from another world."

 

"Remember when Ted accidentally tried to break into your room? That was because we don't live together in my universe. He didn't even know we were married here." Yeah, that still felt strange to say out loud, "Or when he mentioned Tora at lunch and then looked all confused when you got mad. It was because he honestly didn't know. He's sorry about that, by the way. Which is another thing! I don't think your Ted would be sorry about that! But my Ted is."

 

"This isn't proof. I'm not convinced this isn't some stupid joke the two of you are pulling."

 

"... But?" 

 

"But it doesn't sound impossible. Why are you telling me this?" Bea finally sat down beside Booster's head, no longer looming over him. 

 

"Because I'm confused, and I'm scared, and I might die here with you so there's no use in pretending I'm not. And I like my Bea, I figure you can't be too bad if you're anything like her. Then again, my Ted is my best friend, and I've read the files for your Ted…"

 

"God, yeah. Ted is an asshole."

 

"Yeah. How do you put up with that guy?" 

 

"I don't. I don't really talk to him unless you're there as a buffer. He stays away from security because he knows we all fucking hate him down there and he doesn't have any power over us."

 

Booster frowned, "My Ted isn't anything like yours."

 

"I know. I knew something was off as soon as I saw him a couple days ago. I've never seen our Ted kord anything less than a hundred percent certain of his actions, no matter how stupid they were. Or how shitty. The way he was at my door? And at dinner? No, that isn't Ted. Not to mention you."

 

"Me?"

 

"You're too damn happy. You don't ever smile unless Ted is around, and even then you don't… I Don't know, Michael-- Booster? you just smile too much. Too sincerely. It's weird."

 

Booster absently considering the implications that, even at his most anxious, he still smiled that much more than his counterpart. 

 

"So you believe me? That I'm not from your world?" 

 

"You know how batshit insane it sounds, right?" 

 

"Of course."

 

"Yes. I believe you. Are you happy?" 

 

"Well," Booster finally sat up, propping himself up so that he was eye level with Bea, "I would be, if that conversation actually meant anything. We are still stuck in an alien prison."

 

"Today could definitely be going better," Bea conceded. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My outline for this is at nine chapters now and we all just have to live with this.
> 
> Also I know there's probably some Disco canon that I'm ignoring but we also just have to live with that. Canon is a fruit basket and I'm only grabbing the shiniest apples. Like mirrorverse light sensitivity.


	6. Chapter 6

Booster was gone. 

 

Booster was gone and Ted wasn't sure what an agonizer was but he knew he'd just been threatened with one but that didn't matter because Booster was  _ gone  _ and no one was doing anything. 

 

"You can't just leave two crew members behind on an alien world--" 

 

Not J'onn inhaled sharply, "Lieutenant Commander Kord-Carter, I'm giving you leeway right now because I know your husband was part of the away team, but if you raise your voice at your commanding officer one more time you'll be required to hand over your agonizer. Do you understand? "

 

That didn't sound great. Ted lowered his volume but doubled the determination in his tone, "We are not leaving without them, Sir." 

 

Not J'onn knew that Ted didn't have any power over him in terms of rank, but he also knew that Ted had the ability to sabotage the entire engineering deck an awful lot before any security could stop him, and that many of the necessary repairs would be impossible without him. 

 

Not J'onn probably hadn't even considered the idea that Ted also knew exactly how to lock himself into engineering in such a way that promised no one else could get in for a couple hours at least, and that the amount of damage he could do in that time was astronomical. 

 

Ted knew he was thinking like he belonged in this universe-- dealing in power plays, turning every interaction into a political game, every person into problems that needed to be solved-- but he convinced himself that that was simply the sort of decision making the situation called for. 

 

"Lieutenant Commander, you are to return to your quarters and stay there." Not J'onn paused, then turned to the navigators' station, "belay your previous order. Maintain orbit around this planet for twelve more hours." He turned back to Ted, "After those twelve hours are up, we are leaving. With or without Mister Kord-Carter and Miss Da Costa. You are dismissed, Lieutenant Commander."

 

Twelve more hours for Booster and Not Bea to get themselves out of an impossible situation and back to the relative safety of the ISS enterprise. Ted had seen Booster succeed through worse.

 

Besides, they'd already had three days so far. 

  
  


"I wonder if they left us behind yet." Bea was tossing a small stone back and forth to keep her hands busy as she spoke. 

 

"Oh I doubt it," Booster smiled just a bit to himself, "Ted wouldn't let them leave without us."

 

"Without you."

 

"Without us. You may not be the Bea we know, but Ted isn't the sort of guy to leave anyone behind."

 

"Fair enough. I just figured, with you being his partner and all--" 

 

"Partner?" 

 

"Boyfriend? You said you weren't married in your universe, right?" 

 

Booster coughed through his surprise, "We, uh, he's, um, we're friends. He's my best friend. But it’s all strictly platonic."

 

Bea stared at him for a moment, then decided not to question the nature of their relationship any further. Instead, she backtracked on the conversation and said, "I think you're overestimating the amount of pull a Lieutenant Commander has aboard a starship."

 

"I think you're underestimating the amount of pull Ted Kord has aboard anything with an engine."

 

"Is that so?" 

 

Booster nodded, "Did you have Wayne as your first officer before J'onn?" 

 

"We did. He's a captain on board the ISS Agamemnon now, though, got promoted."

 

"Right, same in our universe. Real hard ass, absolutely terrifying, he looks at you and you immediately start to develop self esteem issues, yeah?" 

 

"That definitely sounds like him."

 

"I once watched Ted take command of the Enterprise through the engineering deck because he didn't like Wayne's orders. Wayne had been acting strange all day, giving orders that didn't make any sense or were dangerous for the crew. So Ted shut off all bridge controls and locked the two of us in engineering to man the entire ship while Wayne was locked in a damn turbolift!"

 

"Did Ted lock him in there?" 

 

"Of course he did. He had to keep commander Wayne away from any controls-- Wayne is a damn good engineer, too, you know. That's how he got started in starfleet. Anyway, as soon as Ted got the ship out of orbit and far enough away from the planet we'd been researching, Wayne started coming to his senses. He went from throwing a hissy fit in the turbolift to calmly pinging Ted on the communicator to tell him that the door was jammed. Turned out he'd been mind controlled by the people on the planet below into sabotaging the Enterprise. Ted was the only one who'd noticed something was wrong."

 

"So you think he'll, what, take control of the ship if they try leaving without us?" 

 

"I'm not sure what he'll do, Bea," Booster tipped his head toward the ceiling, "But they aren't going anywhere."

 

But they'd have to help. Ted could stall all he wanted, but it wouldn't do any good if Not Bea and Booster were stuck in a prison cell with no communicators to speak of. 

 

First thing first, get out of this damn cell. 

 

They'd been bouncing plans between each other for what was probably three days. It was hard to tell time in the cave system the cell seemed to be built into. None of the plans they'd thought up was worth a shit. The guards came by three times a day to bring food, or at least what passed for food on this planet. They were due for another visit any minute now. 

 

Bea had started gently thunking her head against the wall behind them in the interim silence. "Well…" she finally said, "We could always try flirting with the guards."

 

"I'm sure I could win them over, yeah."

 

"Actually I meant I could--" 

 

"No, no, I think I've got a better shot here."

 

Bea pursed her lips, "I'm sorry?" 

 

"No offense to you, I mean, it's just… Have you seen the way the short one looks at me?" 

 

"They’re looking at me!" 

 

"If that's what you want to tell yourself…"

 

"Whatever. Anyway, all we need is to get one of the guards close enough to swipe keys from, right?" 

  
  


Ted had been staring at his ceiling for nearly an hour. Confined to quarters until either Booster and Bea were recovered or the Enterprise left orbit. Wait here in radio silence until your best friend and your Not friend return from certain death, Ted, it shouldn't be that difficult. 

 

This bed smells like Booster. 

 

There's this indent where Michael usually sleeps. Ted realized, once Booster had disappeared, that they had somehow managed to pick the same sides of the bed as their counterparts had slept in-- he could tell from the dents in the bed that had been there before they'd shown up. Does that imply any similarities between the two versions of them, he wondered, or if it was just a fifty fifty shot. 

 

This whole room smells like Booster. 

 

Really, Michael smelled like Booster. The same soap, cologne, hair product mix that Ted had grown used to. No matter the universe, it seemed, Boost had the same meticulous grooming schedule. The side effect was that his entire room soaked up his smell like a sponge.

 

It wasn't a bad scent, really. 

 

Ted wondered if he smelled like Booster. He wouldn't notice, he only noticed the smell of the room now because of Booster’s absence. And he had been spending so much time in this room, in this bed, with Booster. And he kind of hoped-- no, that's stupid. 

 

See, he kind of hoped he did smell like Booster. 

 

This is what happens when you're alone with your thoughts, the weirdest things pop into your head. 

 

Booster was going to be alright. Remember that time Booster was trapped on a planet's surface in the freezing cold while the crew was dealing with a transporter malfunction and captain Lord's evil clone? Granted, Booster hadn't exactly been instrumental in solving that, but he'd gotten through it alright enough. Or remember that time the whole crew had been mind controlled by those weird flowers in the doomed colony and Booster figured out how to knock everyone out of it. He'd not only figured it out, actually, but he'd been brave enough to follow through with getting J'onn mad enough to pitch him across a room  _ on purpose.  _ Which Ted always thought was a hell of a lot more impressive than the initial burst of problem solving. 

 

Ted knew that Booster had a track record of getting out of certain death situations nearly unscathed, everyone on the enterprise did. But usually, those people had the entire crew of the enterprise behind them to back them up. Right now, Booster just had Not Bea and Ted in his corner, and Ted was currently benched. 

 

The alien guard ended up being far more interested in Bea's charms than Booster’s. Booster tried not to take that as too big a hit to his ego. It didn't exactly matter, anyway, all that mattered was that they got the guard to get close enough to the cell door for long enough that they could incapacitate him and take his keys. When the guard had leaned against the bars to chat with Bea, Booster nearly jumped for joy. All Bea had to do was reach through the grate and slam the guards head against it, knock him out for a little while. 

 

But then she just… Didn't stop. She kept slamming the guards head against the grate until lilac blood started pouring down his face and then she just kept going. Booster watched, frozen in disgust and horror as the sound of the guards face against the bars of the cell shifted from a sharp clank to a slushy thwump, and then finally, when he heard a distinctive crack, he regained enough sense to shout "BEATRIZ!" 

 

Because that was what was so shocking, wasn't it? It wasn't the violence of the act-- in all his years in Starfleet, Booster had seen more than enough acts of cruelty to be desensitized. No, it was the fact that the person committing this act was someone who looked so much like his Bea. Someone he could almost fool himself into thinking was his Bea, if a bit more serious. But here she was standing splattered in alien blood and glaring at Booster like he'd just interrupted her in the middle of her favorite game. 

 

"What the Hell is your problem, Michael?" 

 

"You’re killing him!" 

 

"You want him incapacitated, don’t you?" 

 

"Not dead! What the fuck, Bea! You can't just--" 

 

"Just what, Michael?" Bea reached down to pluck the keys from the guards belt before letting him slump to the stone floor of the dungeon, "Just retaliate against someone who means me harm? Is that what you have an issue with? You're on the security track for fuck’s sake."

 

"He’s just a guard, Bea."

 

"He imprisoned us! I'm responding in kind!" 

 

"From his perspective we invaded his planet! What did you expect, just to be welcomed with open arms?" 

 

"That would have been better, yes. What would you do in your universe? Nicely ask him to please unlock the door, if it’s not too big a trouble?" Bea said in a mocking falsetto, “Or would you just wait here and rot?”

 

"We wouldn't kill anyone!" 

 

"And then you'd be caught trying to escape. Because you're weak. Dead men can't cry for help, Booster."

 

Without another word, Bea unlocked the door and opened it for Booster to leave in front of her. Booster was hesitant to turn his back on her after what he'd just seen, but logically he knew she'd be better off with him around. 

 

Their phasers had been confiscated and there was no hope of getting them back without getting imprisoned again. Booster’s communicator, on the other hand, was laying on the ground barely out of arm's reach from the cell door. The only issue was that it was smashed to bits. Booster gathered what remained of the communicator anyway, figuring there had to be something in the wreckage that the Enterprise could track. Besides, it was going to be a long climb to get back above ground and within transport range, he might as well try to fix the communicator along the way. 


	7. Chapter 7

“They’ll be scanning for us,” Booster noted, “that’s a good start.”

 

“Planet wide scans have a high margin of error, they don’t have any idea where to look.”

 

“I know this is the dark and dreary universe where everything sucks but it would be cool if you let me have, like, even a little bit of optimism right now, Bea.”

 

They had been walking for nearly an hour, trying to get as far away from the aliens who’d locked them up as they could. Booster had at first suggested finding their original landing sight and waiting there, figuring that was probably the epicenter of any scans the Enterprise was conducting. Bea pointed out that it would probably also be the first place their former captors looked for them. Now, an hour later, Booster realized that the argument was a moot point anyway-- there was no way they were finding their way around this planet in a million years.

 

The tunnel they’d escaped through spit Booster and Bea out into a dense jungle with minimal distinctive landmarks. The two of them were thoroughly lost, not even knowing which direction they were walking in.

 

“Right, of course. We’re going to die here, but we might as well die happy, right? Happy and delusional. The best way to go.”

 

“If I’m dying anyway, what’s wrong with a little delusion?” Booster tried for a joke, but it obviously hadn't landed, based on Bea’s nonreaction. “Anyway, it’s not delusion. Things aren’t hopeless. What would you have us do, give up?”

 

Bea threw up her arms, spinning on her heel to face Booster, “Obviously not, dumbass, or I wouldn’t be trudging through a rainforest in hundred degree heat right now! I think we have a chance. But I'm not getting my hopes too high. Because there’s no reason to. Understand?”

 

“Yes, sir.” Booster said in a mocking tone.

 

Bea paused, looking at Booster’s hands, “What’s that?”

 

“My communicator. Or what’s left of it, at least. The guards broke it, but left it in our cell. I figured I could try to fix it, y’know?”

 

“Now that… that’s something. That’s a chance. Why didn’t you mention that sooner?! How competent are you with electronics?”

 

Booster shrugged, “I know what they taught me at the academy. Hobby tinkering as a kid sometimes. My best friend is the best engineer in Starfleet. I can give it a shot. Stand guard?”

 

Bea stood over Booster with a phaser while he spread out all the communicator parts on a patch of forest floor. Not the best place to work, really, but choosy beggars and all that.

  
  


Booster wasn’t an engineer. That was his main problem at the moment. 

 

Starfleet academy had basic engineering classes required of all students, but none of them covered how to rebuild a communicator from broken parts.  _ If Ted was here… _ Booster thought…

 

Except he wasn’t, and there was no use imagining he was. All he had was Bea, who wasn’t terrible company. Aside from her occasional murdering of prison guards, and Booster was trying very hard not to think about that one. Bea was strong, an excellent fighter, not the worst person to be stranded on an alien planet with. But she also wasn’t an engineer. 

 

_ “Don’t forget your communicator, dipshit!” Ted grabbed the device off the tree stump they had just stood up from and handed it back to Booster. _

 

_ “We have to come back to beam up anyway, and you have one too. What’s the big deal?” _

 

_ Ted looked positively dumbstruck, “really? Do they not teach security officers how communicators work?” _

 

_ “You flip up the cover and call the captain when shit hits the fan, generally.” _

 

_ “No-- Well, yeah, but-- Look,” Ted turned the communicator over and opened up the back panel, standing closer to Booster so he could see as well, “Here, you see that little red chip there? It’s a GPS. If, as you so eloquently put it, shit hits the fan, the transporter bay can use it to locate you. If you don’t have your communicator on you and we need to beam up, you're going to screw with the transporter and delay our exit. How does a delayed retreat sound to a security officer?” _

 

_ “Very dangerous,” Booster conceded, grabbing the communicator out of Ted's hands. _

 

_ “There you go. Keep track of your shit.” _

 

The red chip! Booster sifted through the wreckage to find it, hiding under a leaf on the forest floor. About the size of a thumbnail, possibly the thing that would save his and Bea’s lives.

 

The battery was easy to find, by far the bulk of the communicators mass. It still had the speaker connected to it by a thin wire, so booster sifted a bit more to find the microphone as well. He didn’t bother with the casing or the lights or anything else and hoped to god it would work alright when he hit the power on the battery.

 

“Kord-carter to Enterprise, come in Enterprise.”

 

The communicator laid silently for a moment with booster and Bea staring at it expectantly. 

 

“Enterprise to Kord-Carter, we read you.”

 

Bea cheered and clapped Booster on the back, Booster used his free hand to pull Bea into a celebratory hug.

 

“Two to beam up, Captain!”

 

“We’re working on it, it’s going to take just a few minutes to lock on you two because the signal from your communicator is very weak. Why didn’t you call sooner?!”

 

“Long story, we’ll explain la--”

 

“BOO-- MICKEY!!! Mikey, you’re okay!” one of the helmsmen had pinged Ted in his room as soon as they got word from the planet's surface. Ted wasn’t particularly proud of grabbing the communicator directly out of Captain Lord’s hand, but the look of shock on the good captain's face was quite hilarious nonetheless.

 

“TED! Thanks to you, actually, I wouldn't have known how to fix this thing without you being such a nerd!”

 

Ted laughed, “You had to fix a communicator on your own? Goddamn, remind me to give you an engineering crash course when you get back up here, okay?”

 

“Oh boy,” Booster said, “Celebratory homework. That’s exactly what I want. Oh, hey, Teddy, I gotta tell you-- you know that project you’ve been working on the past week or so? The personal project?”

 

Ted scolded himself, of course Booster was expecting him to have figured out their way home by now. “Yeah, sorry, Mikey, I haven’t made much progress on that since you’ve been gone.”

 

“No, that’s fine, it’s just that I told Bea about it. Figured you should know, is all.”

 

The captain frowned, “Personal project?”

 

“In my free time, don’t worry,” Ted waved him off, “Why’d you tell Bea?”

 

The communications officer looked up, “One minute to beam up, sir, if you would like to meet them in the transporter room.”

 

Ted tossed the communicator back to the captain and ran for the turbolift.

  
  


Ted can say it was part of their act. Ted can say that it’s been days since they’d seen each other, that Booster nearly died, that he was worried sick and that in that situation this is how married couples would greet each other. And he was thinking about that, he supposed. The thought had crossed his mind. It wasn’t lying to say their little deception was a factor in Ted's actions. It was lying to say it was the only motivation.

 

Ted ran into the room right as Booster and Bea materialized on the transporter pad and he didn’t stop running. He pushed past Bea, nearly knocking her down without noticing, and kissed Booster with enough force to knock him back a few steps.

 

It was brief, achingly so. Ted had to stand on his toes to reach Booster, who seemed completely unwilling to bend down to accommodate him. Ted stepped back almost immediately, as soon as he realized how stupid this impulse decision was.

 

“Uh, hey, babe,” Booster said.

 

Babe, that was an interesting touch, “Glad to have you back!”


	8. Chapter 8

After Bea and Booster finished their report to the captain, Ted suggested Bea return to their quarters with them. He suggested this, he said, because it gave them a chance to fill her in completely on the multiverse issue.

 

Mostly he didn’t want to be alone with Booster after his transporter room stunt. 

 

While Ted worked, he chatted idly with Booster and Bea about the universes they’d found themselves in, either by birth or by transporter failure.

 

“The thing is,” Ted was saying, “The thing is, I always kind of wanted more respect in the engineering deck, right? Not enough to do anything about it, but like, it would have been nice. But this isn’t respect, this is… this is fear, y’know. Other Ted must be a special kind of asshole, is all I'm saying.”

 

Bea nodded, “You are a special kind of asshole.” 

 

“That’s not--”

 

“That’s not you, I know, but all I'm saying is the other you is probably the worst commanding officer to work under on the Enterprise. Short temper, loose with agonizers--”

 

There was that word again, the thing the captain had threatened Ted with before, “Agonizers?”

 

“Yeah, you know. Agonizers. Those things you carry around that your commanding officer can hurt you with if they need to. Your Starfleet doesn’t have agonizers?” Bea looked like she was finding out Ted and Booster’s universe didn’t have warp cores or food replicators or the color mint green. Some fact of life that wasn’t exactly necessary but still it seemed bizarre to imagine a place without them.

 

Ted frowned, “No? No we don’t.”

 

“How do you punish unruly crewmen?”

 

“Uh, we talk to them usually. You know, like adults? Or confine them to quarters. Court marshal them if they really fucked up. Agonizers?! What the hell?!”

 

“Weird. Didn’t you wonder what the extra thing on your uniform was?”

 

Booster, speaking up for the first time in the conversation, pointed to his agonizer, “This? I thought it was an extra phaser.”

 

“Does it look like any type of phaser you’ve ever seen?!”

 

Booster shrugged, “Hey, Bea, my shirt is red, not blue. Obviously I've never claimed to be known for my brain power.”

 

“... Obviously”

 

Ted jumped up, “Okay we can stop making fun of Booster for being an idiot now because I’ve made a breakthrough!”

 

“Dude!”

 

“What? I said  _ stop  _ making fun of you. Anyway, I have a plan, do you want to hear it or not?”

 

It turned out to have been good news that Booster had told Bea about their situation, because they would need someone to man the transporter. The plan went that Booster would get the current transporter attendants out of the way, "I don't give a shit how you do it, just do it", long enough for Ted to do the necessary hacking on the control panel. Once he was done, Bea could send them back easy as pie with the coordinates already set in. 

 

After a moment's thought, Booster said, "Do you really need Bea with you when you do all the hacking shit?" 

 

"Not unless she has an engineering degree I don't know about. Actually, not even then, I'll be fine-- why?" 

 

"Well, the role of law enforcement is very easy to abuse."

 

"An accurate yet unsettling judgment," Ted said, "So Booster and Bea are going to be performing an unlawful arrest while I tamper with a Starfleet computer. Wonderful, this is how I usually like to spend my days."

 

Booster, as it turned out, had a habit of over acting. Despite that, the two transporter attendants were placed in the brig with minimal problems and a promise from Bea to release them as soon as possible. 

 

"Will you get in trouble with the captain for this?" Booster asked as soon as the 'prisoners' could no longer hear them. 

 

"I doubt it. I'll make something up about a mistaken report, and if they say anything to the captain he'll probably just assume it's a personal squabble." 

 

"Abuse of power isn't punished so severely here, I guess."

 

"If you want to phrase it like that," Bea shrugged. 

 

Back in the transporter room, Ted explained to Bea everything she needed to know to send them over and then reset the system so that no one could hop universes after them. 

 

Bea frowned at the controls, "You're certain that this will work? That no one can get back to your world?" 

 

"Yes… Why are you so worried, do you hate us that much?" Ted laughed 

 

"Ted, this is serious. Two of my crew members already know about your world, and if anyone else on this ship finds out… You don't know the empire like I do. They'll see your federation as nothing more than resources to conquer. A second universe worth of worlds to use and destroy. For your sake, I need you to be absolutely positive that you're the only one who knows how to make this jump."

 

Ted stopped for a moment, thinking about what Bea had said. "I'm positive."

 

"Good. If I ever see you again, it will be on the battlefield. Don't let that happen."

 

"Huh," Booster said, "she's right. We're never going to see each other again. At least, not these versions of us."

 

"I certainly hope we won't," Bea agreed.

 

"It's sad, though, isn't it? I mean, I like you. You're scarier than our Bea, which is saying something, but you're saving our life right now. And then you're just… Gone. That sucks."

 

"I suppose so-- I certainly like you two better than the Kord-Carters I know. I'll miss you two."

 

"We'll miss you, too." Ted said, stepping on to the transporter platform. 

 

"Hey, before you go." Bea stayed looking at the control panel as she spoke, "Tell your Tora… Tell her about me, okay? Tell her I know she's not my Tora, and I'm not her Bea, but I still want her to know how much I loved her. My version of her. It's stupid, I know--" 

 

"We'll tell her," Booster promised. 

 

"Thank you. And tell her one more thing, please? Tell her I'm going to do whatever I can to fix this. I can't… It won't be much, I know, I can't do everything, but now that I know what the universe could be I'm going to make it better or die trying. In whatever way I can. And I'm doing it… Well, I'm doing it for everyone, I guess, but mostly I'm doing it for Tora."

 

Booster and Ted didn't get a chance to respond. They barely had the chance to register that Bea had tears swelling in her eyes before they were back in their own universe and staring down some very confused transporter attendants. 


End file.
